RRND Email Full Text (Scheduled)

  • GA: Driver fleeing violent gang members crashes, killing teacher

    Source: San Diego Union-Tribune

    “A Guatemalan driver fleeing a Georgia traffic stop by federal immigration officers crashed into another vehicle, killing a teacher who was headed to work, authorities and school officials said. Oscar Vasquez Lopez, the driver accused of causing the Monday crash just outside of Savannah, remained jailed Tuesday on charges including vehicular homicide, reckless driving and driving without a valid license. Lopez, 38, is in the U.S. illegally [sic], according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Immigration officers were looking for Lopez to enforce an immigration judge’s 2024 deportation order, ICE spokesperson Lindsay Williams said Tuesday, noting that Lopez has no other [sic] criminal history.” (02/17/26)

    https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/02/17/immigration-enforcement-fatal-crash/

  • Ireland: Regime’s “data protection” racketeers tee up payoff demands for X

    Source: The Hill

    “Elon Musk’s social media platform X faces a European Union privacy investigation after its Grok AI chatbot started spitting out nonconsensual deepfake images, Ireland’s data privacy regulator said Tuesday. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said it notified X on Monday that it was opening the inquiry under the 27-nation EU’s strict data privacy regulations, adding to the scrutiny X is facing in Europe and other parts of the world over Grok’s behavior. … The watchdog said the investigation will seek to determine whether X complied with the EU data privacy rules known as GDPR, or the General Data Protection Regulation. Under the rules, the Irish regulator takes the lead on enforcing the bloc’s privacy rules because X’s European headquarters is in Dublin. Violations can result in hefty fines.” (02/17/26)

    https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-international/ap-grok-faces-more-scrutiny-over-deepfakes-as-irish-regulator-opens-eu-privacy-investigation-2/

  • Russia: Kremlin Aide Warns West Over Piracy

    Source: US News & World Report

    “Russia could deploy its ⁠navy ⁠to prevent European powers from ⁠seizing its vessels and may retaliate against European shipping if Russian ​ships are taken, Nikolai Patrushev, one of Russia’s leading hardliners, was quoted as saying on Tuesday. Western states have ‌sought to cripple Russia’s economy ‌with sanctions and in recent months have tried to block oil tankers suspected of involvement in ⁠Russian oil ⁠shipments. In January, [US-based pirates] seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker as ​part of efforts to curb Venezuelan oil exports. Patrushev, a Kremlin aide who is a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, said Russia needed to give a tough response — particularly towards Britain, France and Baltic states.” (02/17/26)

    https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-02-17/putin-ally-warns-european-powers-over-seizure-of-russian-vessels

  • Kelly tells BBC he will “seriously consider” White House run

    Source: BBC News [UK State Media]

    “US Democratic Senator Mark Kelly has said he will ‘seriously consider’ running for president in 2028 as he battles the Trump administration over a video in which he urged military personnel to refuse illegal orders. The Arizona senator, who was accused of ‘seditious behaviour’ by Donald Trump over the November clip, said he and his wife, Gabrielle Giffords, received ‘many’ death threats after the president’s comments. ‘We get them on a weekly basis now,’ he told BBC Newsnight. ‘We had to get security to protect us 24 hours a day.’ Asked if he was considering a White House run, the retired Navy captain said he was considering it ‘because we’re in some seriously challenging times.’ The 61-year-old, who is a former astronaut, noted he was very different from most senators.” (02/17/26)

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy9gdvl4zv4o

  • SpaceX and xAI tapped by Pentagon for autonomous drone contest

    Source: Teslarati

    “SpaceX and its AI subsidiary xAI are reportedly competing in a new Pentagon prize challenge focused on autonomous drone swarming technology, as per a report from Bloomberg News. The six-month competition was launched in January and is said to carry a $100 million award. Bloomberg reported that SpaceX and xAI are among a select group invited to participate in the Defense Department’s effort to develop advanced drone swarming capabilities. The goal is reportedly to create systems that can translate voice commands into digital instructions and manage fleets of autonomous drones.” (02/17/26)

    https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-xai-tapped-pentagon-autonomous-drone-contest/


  • Mission Accomplished? A Reality Check on Trump’s Tariffs

    Source: The Daily Economy
    by Caleb S Fuller & Scott Burns

    “At the end of January, President Trump penned a triumphant op-ed declaring ‘Mission Accomplished’ for the signature economic policy of his second term: tariffs. Unfortunately, his entire victory lap revolved around phony numbers, cherry-picked facts, and a strawman caricature of his critics’ arguments. Trump began by claiming all the ‘so-called experts’ predicted his tariffs would trigger ‘a global economic meltdown.’ Instead, he boasts, they’ve ushered in ‘an American economic miracle.’ He’s wrong on both counts.” (02/17/26)

    https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/economists-were-right-about-trumps-tariffs/

  • The First Rosa Parks Was Claudette Colvin

    Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
    by Wendy McElroy

    “Rosa Parks’s death on October 24, 2005, was met with tributes from across America and around the world to memorialize the impressive role she played in the Civil Rights Movement. On December 1, 1955, Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a crowded Montgomery, Alabama, bus. Instead, the 42-year-old black woman defied Jim Crow segregation laws and local customs …. Parks’s ensuing arrest for disorderly conduct rallied the city and state’s black community, which staged a one-day bus boycott by blacks on December 5. It was almost 100 percent effective, and its amazing success sparked the much larger 1955–1956 Montgomery bus boycott, which lasted over 300 days, and from which Martin Luther King, Jr., emerged as the primary leader of the movement. … A woman named Claudette Colvin died on January 13, 2026, to far less acclaim than Parks received two decades earlier.” (02/17/26)

    https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/the-first-rosa-parks-was-claudette-colvin/

  • The Meaning of the “Rules-Based” Order and 75 Years of NATO

    Source: Antiwar.com
    by David S D’Amato

    “The Munich Security Conference is underway, and both American and European politicians have taken the opportunity to lament the end of the old ‘rules-based’ order. The problem is that the order to which they refer never truly existed. With a quarter century of the new millennium behind us, we have an opportune time to reflect upon the international system that has defined this new period. The decades between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the present day bore witness to several important and unprecedented military interventions that give shape and structure to this new world order. Perhaps the most pivotal of these episodes was the United States-led attack on Yugoslavia in the last months of the twentieth century.” (02/17/26)

    https://original.antiwar.com/david_damato/2026/02/16/the-meaning-of-the-rules-based-order-and-75-years-of-nato/

  • The World Has Turned and Left Me Here

    Source: Reason
    by Eric Boehm

    “Much of President Donald Trump’s economic policy rests on the idea that the United States doesn’t need global trade in order to prosper. A sizable portion of the rest of the world might be ready to put that sentiment to the test. Canada, Mexico, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and 11 wealthy nations across the Indo-Pacific region are taking the first steps toward a globe-spanning trade deal that would encompass nearly 40 nations and over 1.5 billion people …. Though it is a long way from a done deal, the attempt to link most of the world’s largest non-U.S., non-China economies into a single economic bloc is perhaps the most significant sign that the rest of the world is preparing for a future where America is no longer pushing for open markets and free trade. But it is not the only sign.” (02/17/26)

    https://reason.com/2026/02/17/the-world-has-turned-and-left-me-here/

  • The Political and Personal Case for Linux (Yes, I Am Talking to You)

    Source: Garrison Center
    by Thomas L Knapp

    “You probably use a computer — in fact, you’re probably reading this column on a computer. For 72% of you, that computer is  the ubiquitous ‘standard’ Windows PC or laptop. For 20% of you, it’s a Mac. The other 8% of you oddballs mostly use Linux or (Linux-based) ChromeOS. I know the 92% of you who use Windows or macOS get tired of the cool kids telling you this, but it should be the other way around. Almost everyone should be using Linux almost all the time. Instead of leading off with the technical reasons why, though, I want to hit you with the political, and personal financial, reasons for making the switch.” (02/17/26)

    https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20378

  • Chatting with Ben about his (and our) challenges

    Source: Christian Science Monitor
    by Scott Baldauf

    “It’s not every day that a reporter gets an email from Ben Franklin. In the course of reporting a story on historical reenactors from the American Revolutionary War period, I was in regular email contact with two Ben Franklins, one George Washington, and an 18th-century tavern owner from the British colony of New Hampshire. One of the Bens invited me to read his Substack column. It reads exactly like Ben Franklin would have written it if he did, in fact, live in a society that had capitalized on the newly discovered energy source of electricity, taken a magical carriage ride through the Industrial Age to the computer age, and ditched typeset printing tools for digital publishing. Why would a Monitor reporter do any of this? The answer is right there in the headlines we read (or avoid reading) every day.” (02/17/26)

    https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/From-the-Editors/2026/0217/founding-fathers-wisdom

  • Why Politicians Should Stay Inside the Overton Window (Even When the Cause Is Just)

    Source: Bet On It
    by “Chris Andrews”

    “The politics of immigration show how positions far outside the center can undermine achievable reforms. Public opinion currently opposes the Trump administration and ICE tactics, but most voters also don’t support dramatic departures from existing immigration laws, such as open borders or blanket protections for all undocumented immigrants. During the year of our last presidential election, polling suggested voters still prefer Republicans to Democrats on immigration. Voters seemed uneasy with the Biden administration’s policies, associated with limits on deportations and reduced interior enforcement.” (02/17/26)

    https://www.betonit.ai/p/why-politicians-should-stay-inside

  • Don’t Follow Europe by Over-Regulating AI

    Source: Foundation for Economic Education
    by Gabriel Giguere

    “It’s not news to anyone that European governments love to over-regulate. But last year, worried about emerging AI technology, European lawmakers took their regulatory habit even further. In an act of economic self-sabotage, they implemented a ‘regulate first, innovate later’ approach to AI. Instead of waiting for technological innovations to emerge and then responding with appropriate regulation, the European Commission decided it would be the first major regulatory body to pre-empt the innovation and regulate it right away, sight unseen. If it weren’t so misguided, this self-parody would be laughable. In any case, it’s an approach Canada needs to avoid.” (02/17/26)

    https://fee.org/articles/dont-follow-europe-by-over-regulating-ai/

  • The Apocalyptic President: The Personification of an Imperial Power (and Planet) in Decline

    Source: TomDispatch
    by Tom Engelhardt

    “Once upon a time, if you had described Donald Trump’s America to me (the second time around), I would have thought you mad as Alice in Wonderland‘s proverbial hatter — or, if you were a fiction writer, I would have considered your plot so ludicrous that, after reading a few pages, I would undoubtedly have tossed your book in the trash. And yet here we are, not once (yes, all of us can make a mistake once, can’t we?) but twice! And the one thing you should take for granted is that Donald Trump in the White House a second time around is the all-too-literal personification of imperial decline. In fact, decline is hardly an adequate word for it. We just don’t happen to have another word or phrase that would describe him and his crew aptly enough in all their eerie strangeness.” (02/17/26)

    https://tomdispatch.com/the-apocalyptic-president/

  • Of Apes and Men

    Source: Law & Liberty
    by Larry Arnhart

    “Humans shouldn’t take their bearings from other primates — and evolutionary biologists are often the first to tell you so.” (02/17/26)

    https://lawliberty.org/book-review/of-apes-and-men/

  • Weirdos, Child-Haters, and Other Leftists [sic]

    Source: Town Hall
    by Mark Lewis

    “The Left [sic] never (never) fails, daily, to produce something perverted, abnormal, violent, irrational, decadent, barbaric, and utterly, completely stupid. Let me share with you three recent examples I ran across: 1.) This first one is Canadian, a country that is farther gone (if that is possible) into leftism than many Americans. This is incredible! … Well, for the Left [sic], no, it’s not. Headline from the National Post: ‘Ontario resident who wants both a vagina and penis wins public funding for unique surgery; A court has ruled Ontario must pay for a penis-sparing vaginoplasty for a person who identifies as neither fully female nor fully male.’ Are there any words, in the tongues of men or angels, that can describe this?” (02/17/26)

    https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2026/02/17/weirdos-child-haters-and-other-leftists-n2671399

  • The Fallacy Fallacy

    Source: Persuasion
    by Maarten Boudry

    “Have you ever wondered why people believe the moon landing was faked, vaccines secretly poison us, and Mercury in retrograde can ruin your love life? Why does irrationality seem so pervasive? A popular answer, beloved by academics and educators alike, points to fallacies — certain types of arguments that are deeply flawed yet oddly seductive. Because people keep falling for these reasoning traps, they end up believing all sorts of crazy stuff. Still, the theory offers hope: if you memorize the classic fallacies — ad hominem, post hoc, straw man — you will inoculate yourself against them. It’s a neat little story, and I used to believe it too. Not anymore. I’ve become a fallacy apostate.” (02/17/26)

    https://www.persuasion.community/p/why-i-stopped-believing-in-fallacies

  • More Shockingly Honest Confessions From The Empire Managers

    Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
    by Caitlin Johnstone

    “US empire managers have been making some surprisingly honest admissions in recent days, with Senator Lindsey Graham saying the wars of the future are being planned in Israel and Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling for a return to old-school western colonialism. During a Monday press conference in Tel Aviv after a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, Graham said that ‘I’ve been coming here every two weeks whether I need to or not.’ Why is a South Carolina senator traveling to Israel every two weeks, rain or shine? The bloodthirsty warmonger answers this question in short order. ‘The wars of the future are being planned here in Israel,’ Graham said. ‘Because if you’re not one step ahead of the enemy, you suffer. The most clever, creative military forces on the planet are here in Israel.'” (02/17/26)

    https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/02/17/more-shockingly-honest-confessions-from-the-empire-managers/

  • Goodbye and Good Riddance to the Endangerment Finding

    Source: Brownstone Institute
    by David Stockman

    “Trump’s cancellation of the so-called ‘endangerment finding’ with respect to CO2 made by the Obama White House back in 2009 is so profoundly important as to make up for a legion of Trump’s spending, borrowing, easy money, and tariffing sins. Among countless others. The entire notion that fossil-fuel-based industrial civilization threatens to boil the planet alive is sheer crackpottery. Actually, as we reprise below, the geologic and climatic history of the planet so clearly refutes the Climate Crisis nonsense as to point to an even more malefic force at work than just an egregious policy mistake.” (02/17/26)

    https://brownstone.org/articles/goodbye-and-good-riddance-to-the-endangerment-finding/